


PE4CHE5

by sagiow



Category: Mercy Street (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff, Science, Workplace Relationship, pharmaceuticals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-30
Updated: 2017-06-22
Packaged: 2018-11-17 04:36:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 5,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11268072
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sagiow/pseuds/sagiow
Summary: Their latest crisis could very well have unconscionable consequences.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> USP <905> UNIFORMITY OF DOSAGE UNITS  
> "To ensure the consistency of dosage units, each unit in a batch should have a drug substance content within a narrow range around the label claim."

It was barely 8AM, and already Mary felt she was running late.

Greeting her coworkers with smiles and basic polite small talk, she quickly made her way to her office, purse and coffee precariously balanced in the crooks of her elbows as she manoeuvred her keycard through what felt like a dozen restricted access passages. After a final juggling act to unlock her door, she pushed it open and threw her coat and purse on the rack behind it before dropping into her chair. A look at her phone showed the voicemail light flashing furiously, and she sighed. And so it begins. Again.

First things first: she logged on to her computer and sipped on her coffee as her settings loaded. Two clicks on the Outlook icon and her email opened: 37 new messages. Typical for a Tuesday. She rapidly scanned the headers: procedure updates, results, various information requests, quotations… One quickly grabbed her attention, both for the topic as much as the angry red exclamation point alongside it.

 

 **From:** **Green, Emma**

 **Topic:** **PE4CHE5 7mg tablets - OOS CU Results**

Please find attached release testing Certificate of Analysis for lot MH1862. Although assay is compliant, content uniformity results are out-of-specifications:

Limits: 6.0 – 8.0 mg, Acceptance Value NMT 15.0

Results (Stage II):

Mean: 7.6mg, min: 3.0mg, max: 11.0mg, AV: 16.8

Investigation has been initiated with QA.

Thank you,

Emma

 

“Oh shi-.”

 The sinking feeling of dread that started to engulf Mary was interrupted by the incoming loud clacking footsteps that could only belong to one person. She barely had time to look up when Clayton McBurney III, Chief Operating Officer of Mansion House Pharmaceuticals, burst into her office, shaking a piece of paper that she assumed contained the same email. “Ms. Phinney, have you seen this? Why did you not inform me earlier?” he asked, his goldfish eyes bulging.

 She shook her head. “I’ve only just found out myself, sir. The results came out last night after I left.”

“Well, Ms. Hastings transferred them to me the minute _she_ got them.” _Sneaky bitch,_ thought Mary, but then corrected herself: as Quality Manager, Anne had only done her job and escaladed the issue ASAP. Mary just wished she hadn’t been such an eager bootlicker and forwarded it at a time most people were already in bed.

Unfortunately, McBurney was just winding up. “That the Project Head does not follow up closely and communicate critical milestones such as this is completely **_unconscionable_**!” he shouted. “CU results ranging from three to eleven? **_ELEVEN?!?_** How is that even possible?!”

Mary scrambled for words and to maintain her composure. “I’m not sure yet, I haven’t spoken with-“

“Don’t you realize that his jeopardizes everything?!” he continued, slamming the sheet on her desk. “If this batch fails and we miss this deadline, after all that’s been invested…”

 “We won’t, sir,” she jumped in quickly. “I’ll get the team together right away and see what can be done to save it.”

He nodded sharply, fuming. “You have until 5 o’clock sharp to report back with a detailed plan I can share with the executive committee.”

 “Yes sir,” she agreed readily. “We’ll be ready.”

 He glared at her through narrowed eyes for what felt like an eternity. “And Ms. Phinney… I always thought your promotion had perhaps been… premature. Now would **_not_** be the time to prove me right.” He stormed out of her office, leaving her thoroughly shaken.

Exhaling, she leaned back into her chair. _OK, this is bad. Really, really bad. Don’t panic. One thing at a time. Think. Think._

_Jed. Jed’s good at thinking._

 Straightening up, she opened the corporate instant messenger application and was never more relieved to see a brilliant green icon next to the name of Jedediah Phoster, Ph.D., Research & Development Director, closest colleague and unadmitted work husband, indicating he was connected. She quickly double-clicked his name and the chat window opened.

_Phinney, Mary_

Doctor

_Foster, Jedediah_

Baroness

Good morning :)

 

_Phinney, Mary_

No it’s not

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

???

 

_Phinney, Mary_

you haven’t read Emma’s email??

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

About her buying the first round at the next happy hour? Don’t think it was really her who sent it, prob left her session open & someone from the lab pranked her

 

_Phinney, Mary_

NO not that (and I didn’t get that one, what happy hour??)

NO never mind, focus

the MH1862 CU results

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

they’re out already? let me see

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

$%?&#@

This is bad

 

_Phinney, Mary_

Yeah, McB just popped in to make sure I know he knows

He used the word “unconscionable”

Owe him the contingency plan by 5

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

Unconscionable?!? pompous ass.

But this is really bad

 

_Phinney, Mary_

That much I got, Jed. Was hoping for something more helpful from you.

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

I know, sorry, but can’t do much without more info.

 

_Phinney, Mary_

Right. Team meeting, east room in 10 min. You grab BH and EG on your way, I’ll get the office folks.

 

_Foster, Jedediah_

10-4

Don’t worry, we’ll solve this. This isn’t our first crisis. Not like civil war or anything ;)

 

Mary could not help but smile at this. He was right: they always found a way to fix the various issues that invariably popped up in development. Grabbing her laptop, notebook and coffee, she hurried out to gather her team.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Read your science vegetables in Chapter 2, and get fluffy dessert in Chapters 3 and 4 ;)

“OK everyone, thanks for coming,” Mary greeted her colleagues the moment they were all settled in the meeting room. “As I’m sure you’re all aware of by now, the CU results of our last PE4CHE5 registration batch are out of spec. First off, are we absolutely certain of these results?” she asked, a small glimmer of hope in her eyes as she turned to Emma Green.

 Unfortunately, there was no such glint in the young Laboratory Supervisor’s blue eyes. “I’m afraid so,” she replied apologetically in her slight Southern drawl. “We’ve done the standard investigative work and could find no analytical cause for it. I’m having people double-check every detail and reinject samples, but I doubt we’ll have any surprise. The first ten tablets we tested a few days ago were just as bad, these twenty confirm the uniformity problem.”

“So much for that optimistic theory,” Mary replied. “Anne, I suppose the official QA investigation process has been initiated?”

 The Quality Manager momentarily looked annoyed (which Mary mentally mirrored behind her professional façade as she recalled her late-night email forwarding prowess), but replied neutrally. “Yes, of course. Full documentation review is ongoing, to make sure no mistake was made, that all materials and equipment were compliant before starting, that no fluke events occurred during the process. If there’s nothing wrong there, we’ll have to dig deeper, with Byron and Jed’s input.”

 “Do you think there might be any way to save the batch, or at least parts of it?” asked Byron Hale, Director of Operations. “It cost us a pretty penny already, it’d be a disaster to discard it all.”

 Anne considered this, and shrugged, clearly reticent. “If we can trace the problem to a specific event or time and can effectively segregate the defective tablets produced then, perhaps we might. However, this would definitely require a significant amount of resampling and testing, not to mention the ethical question of retesting a batch until it meets the results you want.... ”

 “I agree, I don’t think that’s wise,” added Henry Hopkins, Regulatory Specialist. “No matter how sure we are that a certain portion of the lot isn’t affected, it won’t look good in our submission to the FDA to pick and choose tablets to use and others to reject, especially following a non-compliant release testing result. And reworking the batch is completely out of the question,” he stated, anticipating Hale’s next question. “That would be even worse, and our credibility would be completely shot.”

 “So what’s your opinion, then?” Mary asked. “That we scrap this lot?”

 He nodded, regretfully. “I know this isn’t what anybody wants to hear, but if we want to maintain a clean submission file and good repute with the authorities, I’m afraid that’s the only way to go. Toss this one and make a fresh batch.”

 There was general silence at this, but no one argued otherwise. Mary turned to Dr. Samuel Diggs, Clinical Trial Manager. “Sam, if we could segregate, could we use the good tablets for clinical trials?”

Diggs shook his head. “I don’t like it. We’re still performing dose ranging studies: we won’t be able to make heads or tails of the results if we’re not absolutely certain that the drug product met the specifications that we ourselves established. The tablets with too low drug will probably not be effective, and those too high might be downright harmful. So no, I’m with Henry on this: we need a perfectly compliant batch to generate reliable _in vivo_ data and avoid bigger problems down the line.”

Mary sighed: her tiny hope glimmer was getting dimmer by the second, but she could only agree with her team. “So if we can’t use any of this lot, how does that impact the studies we have lined up?”

 He consulted his notes. “We should have enough from the previous lot to replenish the ongoing studies, but we’ll need more material to initiate the trials for the new indication. If we can’t go full scale, a repeat of the last good batch will be enough to take us through. Patient recruitment is ongoing, though, so we can’t delay much.”

“What’s preventing us from going full scale again?” Mary enquired, glancing across the table to Jedediah. “We have another 1kg shipment of active material coming in a few weeks. Won’t that be enough?”

He shook his head. “Yes, but until we know for sure what is the root cause of the problem, we shouldn’t rush back into production. Although we never saw anything this bad in development, it could be product- or process-related. In this last batch, we did change batch size, equipment, parameters… any or all of these could play a part. Or maybe the operators made a mistake.”

 “What exactly are you insinuating, Foster?” glared Hale. “That my operators can’t follow manufacturing instructions? Maybe if you didn’t always come up with some newfangled, complex fancy recipe for all your projects, they would have less chance of being confused.”

Jed scowled at him. “You can’t compare manufacturing aspirin tablets that have been on the market for 100 years to sophisticated new molecules still undergoing clinical trials. And maybe if your lazy ops managed to read the instructions properly instead of counting down the minutes to their next break, we wouldn’t be here today,” he muttered in reply.

 “Okay, guys, that’ll do,” Charlotte Jenkins, Human Ressources Manager, moderated before this escaladed further, the two department heads being notoriously at odds in their manufacturing approaches and unionized workers appreciation. “Let’s review the files and the training records before we make accusations. And Jed, enough with the operator jabs. It’s their right to unionize, deal with it already.”

Jedediah nodded and glanced sheepishly at Mary, knowing that on that specific matter, she sided fully with Charlotte, having once even called his view on the matter “unenlightened”. However, this was not the moment to alienate her staunchest ally on the team, so she attempted a treaty. “Charlotte, if we have to manufacture another batch soon, we might need them to work double-team over breaks and lunch, overtime and weekends if needed, to make sure we don’t delay the timeline further. Do you think that’s something that could be arranged, with adequate incentive?”

“Most probably. No matter what some might think,” she added with the hint of a smirk directed at Jedediah, “I’ve rarely heard of all employees refusing double pay for a few hours more work. I’ll bring it up to the union rep and see what could be done.”

“Excellent, thank you,” Mary approved, and turned back to Jedediah. “So, back to the CU problem: Jed, if it turns out to be a scale-up issue, how much time would you need to solve it?”

He shrugged. “Hard to tell, but weeks, if not months, depending on how many trials we’ll need to prove our theory, and how fast Emma's team can test them. We’ll probably have to dig into that 1kg, so better order some more active ingredient right now, I know the synthesis can be tricky.”

“There you go again, spending company money like candy on Halloween!” exclaimed Hale, but everyone frowned at him, and he quieted down. “At least, try and keep the revised process simple, will you?” Jed narrowed his eyes in annoyance, but only nodded.

“So we all agree,” Mary summarized, breaking up any further confrontation. “The batch, as it is, cannot be used, either in clinical studies, or for regulatory submission. Pending further investigation, there is an extremely low chance of being able to find a blatant, localized event in manufacturing that could explain these results and could allow us to safely segregate these tablets. Our recommendation is then to discard this lot and make a new one. Before we do this, more investigation and R&D work will be needed to understand the root cause of the problem. As this could take weeks, it might be prudent to plan for another clinical, mid-sized batch to provide sufficient tablets for the planned studies in the meantime. Did I miss anything?”

Everybody shook their head. “Alright then. That’s enough for now: please, try and do as much of the investigations and proposed experimental plan as you can today so I have something tangible to present to Mr. McBurney at the end of the day and convince him that we’re on a solid track. I know we can do this,” she added with an encouraging smile and decided nod, which all returned, more or less believing it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You made it through! PHOSTER FLUFF INCOMING!
> 
> (Anyone curious about "who does what" wtih the different job positions described here, hit me up in the comments and I'll gladly oblige.)


	3. Chapter 3

Everyone gathered their things and exited the room, leaving Mary to finish her notes and close her laptop; when she looked up, she saw that Jedediah had remained seated and was staring at her concernedly. “You’re freaking out,” he said.

She frowned and considered denying it, but knew it would be useless: after collaborating, supporting and even sparring with one another for so long, he often understood her better than herself. “Well, of course I am. I have to report back in less than 8 hours and we have no idea where we screwed up. Why aren’t you?”

He only shrugged. “It’s a bad batch, Mary. It sucks, but it happens. We’ll investigate, find out what went wrong, and learn from it. It’s not the end of the world; however, it very well could be if we release the damn thing.”

Mary sighed, and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I know… quality, safety and efficacy, first and foremost. And we can’t ensure any of the three for this batch. The fallout would be terrible if we used it in anything. I know this as well as you do. But still, Jed… to have worked so long and so hard on this effing project, and be so close to the finish line… and fail…”

 “We haven’t failed yet,” he cut her off, rising to walk up to her. “Mary… this isn’t like you. You’re always this team’s positive pragmatist, our mobilizing cheerleader. There’s still time to regroup and manufacture another batch. A bit late, maybe, but still a huge win for patients if we manage to get it right. So, in the grand scope of things, what’s a few more weeks and tens of thousands of… how’d Hale put it? Halloween candy dollars?” he smirked.

“I’m not sure the upper management and the shareholders will share your optimism and levity,” she muttered, before leaning back in her chair to look up at him, dejected. “Damn it, Jed… Of course you’re right, but I just have a really bad feeling about this… for purely selfish reasons, to be honest. I bet you anything there’s going be hell to pay after McBurney presents this to the board, and it’s my head that’s going to roll.”

“I refuse to believe that. He’d have no just cause.” To her surprise, he reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Everyone here knows that nobody’s more devoted to this project than you; you’ve been working your ass off from day one, and doing all you humanly can,” he added earnestly, not letting her gaze go, and she felt her worry melt away under the warmth of his brown eyes and comforting touch.

He must have seen the gratitude in her eyes, for a twinkle appeared in his, and he tapped her shoulder playfully. “Hey, let’s go out for drinks after work. Get the creative juices flowing. I must confess I do my most ground-breaking troubleshooting work when not completely sober.”

Mary scoffed and shook her head. “That’s not reassuring, Jed. And I’m not exactly in a celebratory mood.”

“Who is? I had more of a “let’s drown our deep disappointment in 2-for-1 draft pints at Brannan’s” thing in mind. So, what do you say?” he insisted, leaning down with an enthusiastic grin that soothed and excited her both at once.

She couldn’t help but smile back at him, at his tenacious attempts to cheer her up. “I think we both have enough work lined up today to take us waaaaay past happy hour, so I have to regretfully decline, although a pint or eight sounds downright fantastic right now.”

Against her will, her restless mind conjured up the image of the two of them slugging back beers in one of the pub’s quieter corner booths, their initial comfortable camaraderie perhaps progressing into something more risqué as the alcohol-fueled evening advanced; the scene was just so unbearably desirable she could not help but continue. “But tell you what: if we somehow manage to escape McBurney’s wrath and emerge unscathed from this mess, I might just take you up on your offer on Friday,” she added, with a lift of her eyebrows and a tilt of her head that might have been a tad too flirty in their present setting.

“Deal,” Jedediah answered, and he held out his hand to her. She took it and he pulled her up, but did not release it immediately, his broad smile fading into a contemplative expression as he stared at their joined hands, weighing his words. Mary herself became twice as aware of the change that had come over their interaction, her pulse quickening in her throat, and she was only glad that he did not look up to find her staring in breathless anticipation.

“And in the highly unlikely, tragic and downright _unconscionable_ chance that one of us should not,” he continued, his voice lower, softer. “I hope you’ll allow me to upgrade that offer to drinks _and_ dinner… at the very least.”

He finally raised his eyes to hers, and the lack of any teasing in them made the blood rush to her cheeks. This did not escape him, and was all the confirmation he could have hoped for. With the lightest of caresses, he slid his thumb over her knuckles, and it was all she could do to nod her head somewhat perceptively and answer lamely: “Sure. Thanks.”

He squeezed her hand gently and released it. “Don’t thank me yet, I still haven’t saved your pet project. Better get to it if you want to have something decent to present to the big cheeseplate tonight.”

With a final wink, he held the door open for Mary to exit, which she did quickly, flustered and confused by yet another problem to solve: how in the world she would ever get through the week.


	4. Chapter 4

The week passed by in a blur. As they all had both feared yet were relieved to learn, the investigation revealed no clear cause or punctual event for the defect, and thus the batch was fully rejected, setting all consciences to rest and the company’s bottom line, in the red.

For hours on end, Jedediah and Mary worked tirelessly to dampen the fires this failure had started; he by coming up with a detailed experimental plan to evaluate the different hypotheses that might have caused it and manufacturing the trial batches with his technicians and assistants, and her by coordinating all actions between the various departments and revising the project’s budget and timeline. Despite winter being well over, there was not a day where they didn’t both start and leave work in the darkness of night, with barely a glimpse of sunlight as they rushed from one department to another.

Outside of daily team progress reports and short texts or calls, they barely saw each other: Jedediah tried to get her away from her office long enough to grab a coffee or a bite to eat at the company’s cafeteria, but she preferred to work through lunch at her desk. Most of it was from professional diligence and true work overload, but the truth was she also did not fully trust herself to be alone with him since their Tuesday morning meeting, afraid another seemingly harmless friendly conversation might veer into new, overly friendly territory. At this critical point of the project, she could not afford to be distracted from their work goals, no matter how tempting and woefully wanted the distraction was. And so they trudged on, until Friday was finally upon them.

That afternoon, half hypnotized by the movement of the powder in the glass housing and by the regular pulses of the air filters, Jedediah was monitoring the fluidized bed parameters of the latest batch his team was manufacturing, when a knock on the window next to him made him look up. In the office space adjacent to the formulation lab where he worked, Anne Hastings was staring at him expectedly, and gestured for him to come out. He frowned in annoyance: not only had he no desire whatsoever to talk to her, but the process was at a critical step he couldn’t simply walk away from. Making this as abundantly clear as he could under his goggles, face mask and lab coat, he pointed to the running equipment and shook his head vehemently. It was Anne’s turn to frown, but not in her typical haughty way: she appeared genuinely troubled. Vanishing for an instant, she reappeared with a marker and paper and scribbled furiously, then slammed it in the window:

McBURNEY SACKED MARY

Jedediah’s heart stopped. He tore his eyes away from the message and looked at Anne, who only nodded, her expression sorrowful and insistent, and pointed to the airlock separating the office and the laboratory. It was his turn to nod, and he shouted: “SQUIVERS!!!!”

His gangly assistant appeared around the corner. “Watch the granulation,” Jedediah ordered, “I need to step out.”

“Yes, sir. Thank you, sir,” the young man answered, but Jedediah was too concerned to feel his typical annoyance at his useless gratefulness. He almost ran to the airlock, not waiting to be out of the manufacturing area to rip off his mask and gloves, and burst through the door to find Anne waiting for him.

“What the hell, Anne?!?” he barked, shedding the lab coat, goggles and hair and beard nets.

“I just found out,” she replied. “I had my weekly meeting with McBurney and, by way of closing, he asked me whether I might take more of her responsibilities for a while-”

“Which I’m **_sure_** you minded,” he snapped back, and although hurt, she continued rapidly. “I asked him why, and he said he would be letting her go immediately after our meeting.”

“WHAT?!?” Jed cried. “You mean **_now_**? You couldn’t start with that?!”

“I’m so sorry, Jed,” she apologized, truly saddened. “He was heading to her office with the security guard when I came here to find you.”

“Fucking hell,” was all he said before pushing her aside and exiting the airlock, no longer restraining himself from running down the corridor and cursing loudly at every keycard-demanding locked door. He first thought of going to her office on the second floor, but decided against it: McBurney would probably have her packed and gone by the time he made it there. His best bet was to intercept her at her car, so he rushed to the closest exit, bracing himself for the midday sun’s eye assault after hours spent in a closed, neon-lighted bunker, and then made his way across the lot to the area where she typically parked.

A wave of gratitude hit him as he saw her tall, lithe frame in the distance, her arms fully loaded with a carton he assumed to contain her personal belongings. As he came closer, he watched her wrestle the car’s hatch open, place her burden inside, close it, and lean heavily against it, her face against her forearm. A sigh or sob shook her shoulders, and it was too much for him to watch any longer.

“Mary,” he called, out of breath, and it came out in a loud, raspy gasp. She started and spun around, the back of her hand quickly wiping her eyes, her posture straightened up to her typical dancer bearing.

“Doctor,” she greeted him teasingly in an unsuccessful attempt at cheerfulness, as he crossed the little distance that separated them. “News travel fast, I see.”

“Anne came down to warn me,” he explained. At the mention of her rival’s name, Mary scoffed and crossed her arms. “To gloat, I’m sure,” she muttered bitterly.

Jedediah shook his head. “No, she seemed truly sorry about it. As we’ll all be, when it’ll actually sink in… but it just makes no sense! Did that jackass really fire you? What reason did he give you?”

She shrugged, helpless. “To be honest, everything after “your employment ends immediately” is pretty much a blur… I think I heard something about lack of leadership, poor decisions, not the right personality and mindset for the position...”

“That’s total bullshit!” Jedediah raged. “No one will believe that! Mary,” he added, grabbing her arms and leaning closer, “This isn’t right, and we’re gonna fight it. We’ll go above McBurney, straight to the executive committee if we have to, and get you your job back. You don’t get to pay for what was a development defect: if it was anyone’s fault, it was mine. I’ll tell them that, I’ll take the fall if they need someone to blame, and if that still won’t do it, I’ll quit too,” he added earnestly.

Deeply moved, she stared back, then sighed. “No, Jed. That’s ridiculously noble of you, but brilliant R&D scientists are a lot harder to find than run-of-the-mill project managers…. just think of the patients-”

“I don’t care about the damn patients! I only care about **you**!” he blurted out passionately, then froze as he heard the words out loud.

She grew still as well, her eyes wide in astonishment, countless questions progressively filling them as the intial shock passed. Jedediah saw it all, and threw what little caution remained to the wind: ever so softly, he cupped her cheek, and tried to give her the answers she sought. “You can’t leave,” he added in a whisper. “God... "run-of-the-mill"?!? You’re anything but! You're the reason I’m so eager to come here in the morning, just to see you, work with you, and see what amazing things we can achieve together. You're the one who supports me, challenges me, and drives me downright crazy, in all the best ways possible. The only one who's stubborn enough to keep me honest and moving forward after all our setbacks and frustrations. Not the company, not the science, not even the patients: **you**. So if you go, I go.”

Mary gazed at him wordlessly for what felt like an eternity, and, in a move that surprised them both, stepped up and kissed him.

There was nothing shy or gentle about it: all the anger and grief caused by her dismissal converged with the long repressed attraction she felt for him, and she expressed it all fervently with her mouth on his, her tongue pushing past his lips to meet his own, her hands grabbing the back of his head to bring him closer, deeper. His response was no less eager: his fingers laced through her hair, while his other hand slid to the small of her back and crushed her body to his, not letting an inch of her out of his touch.

They could not tell whether the kiss lasted seconds, minutes or hours, and did not care; only the appreciative honk of a passing car day made them finally pull somewhat apart to gasp for air and slow their racing hearts. In the chill of the early Spring day, Mary kept her arms loosely around Jedediah’s neck, and looked up.

“Does the offer of drinks, dinner and perhaps more still stand?” she asked, a twinkle in her dark eyes.

“Oh, does it ever,” Jedediah groaned back, making her beam in pleasure.

“Good. Shall we say, Tom’s Bistro at eight? I hear they have an amazing wine list and quite the turf & turf.”

“Perfect, and I have the R&D “Halloween candy” account number for all project-related expenses. Quite appropriate, I think,” he grinned, mischievous, his hands coming to rest on her hips.

“I’ll pick you up in a cab,” she smiled, as her fingers traced the collar of his shirt. “I can assure you right now neither of us will be in any fit state to drive home,” she added with a suggestive look through her eyelashes.

He just gaped at her in absolute enchantment. “You’re making it very difficult to stay sorry I won’t see you on Monday.”

“Well, if it can't be at work, I still have every intention of seeing a whole lot of you elsewhere.” Her arms slid down and, with a gentle shove to his chest, she pushed him away. “Until then, get back inside and keep on saving my pet project.”

“10-4, Baroness, but first, I need to haggle with Charlotte,” he winked, stealing one last kiss before heading back in the building, straight to Human Ressources with his ultimatum. Mary watched him leave, the maelstrom of emotions the last hour had submerged her in slowly subsiding into a vast ocean of hope, wonder at what had just been, and excitement for what was yet to come.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This comes from a modern AU Phoster mind-prompt: we’ve had ER docs, high school music staff, museum folks, science protesters, university students (and probably a bunch of others in the 300+ stories I haven’t yet read), so I went with the workplace I’m most familiar with and located it in a pharmaceutical development company. The S2 “peaches” incident was too delicious to pass up on. I hope the scientific mumbo jumbo was palatable: I sugar-coated it in a bunch of shameless Phoster fluff to make it go down better (hopefully readers did slog through Chapter 2 and get to it).  
> It was yet another attempt at a short story, but then I thought “hey, I gotta explain stuff more, readers won’t understand the science behind it (if they care at all)”, then “hey, I wonder if I could use the whole MH staff to do that?”, and then again “hey, let’s try and incorporate some more S2 motifs to make better parallels”, and ended up being “screw it, it’s long, let’s beef it up to make it prettier and damn the word count”. Speaking of which, I hope the cursing wasn’t too bothersome, but hell is it appropriate for a work-related modern piece ;)
> 
> Oh, and turf & turf ain't a typo, it's a Parks & Rec ref. Treat yo self at Tom's Bistro.


End file.
